The life of a macOS average user involves much less concern with malware than that of an average Windows user although I am of the opinion that by taking basic common sense navigation, you never have to worry about anything on any system. That said, when a threat arises for the universe of Ma's computers, it is good that everyone is paying attention because the trend is that we are much more relaxed in this aspect.
Well, what are we doing here: recently, the antivirus company Trend Micro announced the discovery of new malware for the Mac world, possibly linked to the hacking group OceanLotus, which organizes attacks on human rights groups, media organizations, research institutes and maritime construction firms (?), but also acts on attacks on the final costumer.
The malicious agent comes in a file from the Microsoft Word for Mac, whose original name was spotted as 2018-PHIU GHI DANH THAM D TNH HI HMDC 2018.doc but, of course, the file name can be changed, so be careful. The whole thing goes into action via a fake Word warning stating that that version of the program is not compatible with files created in older editions of the software and asking the user to reopen the application and click on the option "Enable Macro", to allow automated actions.
The macros permission code is then invaded by the malicious agent, which has access and tracking power over the machine, and can even execute Terminal commands remotely. Like malware written in the Perl language, only Macs that have installed language support may be affected by the issue that almost everyone is affected, either because they originally came this way or because of some other software that installed the language in its installation process.
So the tip, as always, is the same: do not open files from unknown senders, be suspicious of unusual warnings in the programs you know, and never give permission for actions that you do not recognize on your Mac.
via ZDNet
